Cogs can think.

It’s always amazing to see how pretty the area where you live every day actually is. First set of photos taken with the Nikon D70 David and Beth are loaning me.

Enjoy.

Cats do drugs too.

Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.

In my country, many people live in a sort of paranoid state where they fear everything that is even remotely related to the Islamic faith, Arabic countries, or bearded men in white gowns. They fear that the Islam will destroy our “Judea-Christian values” - I always love the “Judea” part. Up until Hitler’s mess, and yes, even during that, the Western world was strongly anti-semitic, and it was this sense of anti-semitism that paved the way for Hitler and his group of merry helpers.

These days, it feels as if the situation isn’t much different from what it used to be before Das Dritten Reich. There is a lingering evil lurking in the depths of many Dutch people’s minds, and this evil, if not properly responded to, can lead to a disastrous outcome. Do you want the signs of this lingering evil?

Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islamic pro-apartheid party now tallies up to ~20 of the 150 seats in parliament, wants to ban the Koran by law. He wants to close all our borders for “non-western immigrants” (whatever that may be). He wants to change our Constitution, by changing it such that the right to organisation, the right to set up a school, and the freedom of religion only apply to Christians and Jewish people - exactly, he wants to let apartheid grow root right into the very document that defines everything we Dutch stand for, everything our ancestors fought for, and the very things that made a German lead the fight for our independence: freedom of speech, religion, the right to organise, the right to found schools, tolerance (which does not mean acceptance!), democracy, and above everything else, article 1: unconditioned equality of all men.

What is Wilders’ next move? Badges so we can “conveniently” tell Muslims apart from the rest? Oh, and don’t bring in Godwin’s Law. The law does not apply when the comparison is actually spot-on.

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A Dutch newspaper published a story recently that a few Dutch Muslims have founded an Islam Democratic Party, that wants the Dutch government’s decisions to be influenced by the Koran - their standpoints and ideas have an Islamic base, similar to what our three Christian parties do (in fact, one of those Christian parties openly strives for a fully Bible-based society). This has caused quite the stir in this country, and many are up in arms about an Islamic party being founded in The Netherlands.

The people that are up in arms about this do not understand the weight of the passport they carry, they do not understand the meaning of our national anthem, and they do not grasp the very document that allowed them to actually be up in arms in the first place. I applaud the creation of an Islamic party, as I would applaud the creation of any party - yes, even anti-Islamic, pro-apartheid parties like the one of Wilders. There are 800000 Muslims in this country, and they have every right to organise themselves and to found a political party, because this is the constitutional right of anyone bearing the Dutch passport. These 800000 Muslims should influence the policies of this country, because it affects “them” just as much as it affects “us”.

It’s sad. We don’t want Muslims (or anyone else for that matter) to undermine our democracy, but even when they fully abide by this democracy, they are still met with hate. It perfectly illustrates the complete and utter state of chaos this country is in. I think we lost each other and we forgot where we were supposed to meet up.

Oh, and by the way, it turned out to be a hoax. Nobody founded an Islamic democratic party in The Netherlands. But those 800000 got the message, boys and girls.

I think that’s the problem… Whenever my mother took us to De Efteling or another amusement park, the first thing she said when we were inside was “where do we meet up if we lose one another?”

I… I think we lost each other and we forgot where we were supposed to meet up.

In any case, I’ll be right here.

He raises his hand, the lights go off, and that’s how cabaretist Theo Maassen ends his 2006 show, “Tegen Beter Weten In” (loosely translated as “Against All Odds”).

And it perfectly describes the world we live in today.

Got some cool new gear.

A brand new TV, LCD, 83cm, HD, superawesome, scaringly large. Review on OSNews soon.

A Nikon D70 digital SLR camera. It’s actually not mine; I get to loan it from Adam and his wife Beth (thanks!) while I’m at OSNews. I took my first few pictures with it just now, without having dived into the manuals or other photography jargon yet. They already look a whole lot slicker than any previous photos I made.

More to come.

This is made on New Year’s Eve in Lins’ apartment in Amsterdam (Rozengracht, city centre), during the first stage of our New Year’s Eve. Disclaimer: there’s half a bottle of translucent gold inside my body during the making of this video. Not much, but enough to, well, you know.

I like the bit where I lose the lyrics, look away, and Annemarie (who’s filming) giggles. What I don’t like is everything else.

Seeing I can’t sing.

To me, TV commercials are a form of art. Good, well-thought out television commercials are a joy to watch. Sony, with their paint, bouncing balls, and claymation commercials for their flat-screen TVs, is at the top of the game when it comes to this art form, if you ask me.

There is one other brand that always knows how to tickle my fancy. Audi. Their new campaign for their R8 is just… Stunningly good. The combination of the music with the almost soothing imagery… I love it. It’s not an easy commercial to grasp though, you do need to know a thing or two about the R8 before you ‘get it’ (hint: the supercar is built by hand).

The music is The Beep Beep Song by Simone White - I love the song. It’s so pure, so sterile, and her voice… Dear lord, what a talent. If Fiona Apple and Sufjan Stevens had a baby daughter (of course, this is never going to happen, since Fiona will be marrying me, naturally), she wouldn’t be too far off from Simone White. Check her MySpace page for some more songs off her latest album. Anyway, here is the video for The Beep Beep Song.

Dear lord. It’s barely 2008! Which reminds me, happy new year everyone.